When it comes to brewing beer, these are veterans
Three-plus Pittsburgh-area breweries joined 20 other Pennsylvania breweries and related businesses owned or operated by veterans to brew a double India pale ale that they’re pouring this Memorial Day weekend to help fellow veterans.
Burgh’ers Brewing in Zelienople, Couch Brewery in Larimer, and Shubrew in Harmony, as well as Pittsburgh’s First Sip Brew Box that sells beer-themed items, joined most of the other breweries in April in Harrisburg to brew the batch at Newfangled Brew Works. It had been offered up by part owner and head brewer Adam Cole.
Two kegs of the brew — a double India pale ale named “Hurry Up and Wait” — went to most of the participants to serve starting Thursday. Some proceeds are to the Pennsylvania Veterans Foundation. (The organizers aren’t saying the exact percentage, but that that will vary and that they will announce the amount of the donation once it is made.)
Also participating is Stonebridge Brewing of Johnstown, Cambria County, and Whitehorse Brewing in Berlin, Somerset County. Whitehorse owners George and Susan Walker both attended the collaboration brew day, she said, noting, “George’s father was in the Navy and my father was in the Army and our youngest son, Mitchell Walker, is now overseas on deployment” with the Army National Guard. She says they’ll be pouring the beer at both their Berlin taproom as well as their one at the Meadows near Washington, Pa.
“We are really excited about this!” she added. “A great cause and a real camaraderie with the breweries involved.”
The Breweries in PA website coordinates the effort. The beer, coming in at 8% alcohol by volume, was brewed with 2,400 of Keystone pale malt, 440 pounds of pale oat malt and 220 pounds of pale triticale malt from veteran-owned Deer Creek Malthouse in Glen Mills. They hopped it with Yakima Chief “Veterans Blend” hops from Washington state, but supporting the brew was GEMS Farms Hops in Carlisle.
The rest of the breweries where this beer is available: 2nd Story Brewing in Philadelphia, Aston Abbey Brewing in Aston, Black Forest Brewery in Ephrata, Blueprint Brewing in Harleysville, Cox
Brewing in Elizabethtown, Collusion Tap Works in York, GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, Hop Hill in Bethlehem (pouring on behalf of Seven Sirens that’s not yet open there), Imprint Beer Co. in Hatfield, McAllister Brewing in North Wales, Newfangled Brew Works in East Harrisburg, Root Down Brewing in Phoenixville, Stony Run Brew House in York, Tattered Flag Brewing in Middletown, Ten7 Brewing in North Wales and Weyerbacher Brewing in Easton (also pouring for Seven Sirens).
Chadd Balbi, who co-runs Breweries in PA, says the idea goes back to a meeting with then-Tuned Up brewer Jeremy Burke (an Army veteran now at Steel City Coffeehouse & Brewery in Phoenixville). So as many people can try it as possible, the beer is being served in pints only, says Mr. Balbi, who notes, “We are hoping it sells out at each location through the weekend.”
He says he and his partner Matt Kozar would like to help do this statewide vets event again, perhaps with each participating brewery making its own beer. Their website also is selling $2 stickers with all that money going to benefit the cause.
First Sip Brew Box’s Dennis Guy, who served in the U.S. Army National Guard, says his East Liberty-based startup is “capturing the spirit of this collaboration” in this month’s boxes of beer gear ($49 and $59, with a portion going to vets charity), which include a T-shirt designed with an Air Force artist, a “unique treat made out of the beer,” and stickers.
As he says in the video about the brew and the veterans who helped make it, “It’s a way for us to give back.”
Couch’s Darren Gailey, an Army veteran, says his brewery is honored to be part of it. “I do think it’s a fantastic way for veteran owned breweries to support veteran-centric charities and to let everyone know that there are veteran owned breweries out there,” he said, adding, “I consider it a privilege to have been, and continue to be, of service.”